A Novel Idea?

[Tomonthetrain]

Hi all,

I have been thinking long and hard about things and I have decided to try and write a short story. The working title is "The Adventures of Penny and Virgil"

Thing is I am looking to see if people are willing to have a look at it and see if it is worth it.

If anyone is then I will post a couple of bits for people to look at.

trainbasher

 

[Tomonthetrain]

here is a couple of chapters

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Why not ask Ivo about storylines ?

 

[swj99]

Thing is I am looking to see if people are willing to have a look at it and see if it is worth it.

I would have thought it's definitely worth it.

Out of interest, have you written the whole of that story yet ? I only ask because I find the easiest way to do it is to write the end first, in rough, so you know what you're writing the story towards.

You can often tell when you're reading a story where the author hadn't decided the outcome before they started writing, because of the round the houses, vague way those stories seem to meander towards the end.

The only comment I can make is a general one, and it's a personal preference. If the first page of a story interests me, I'm more likely to be hooked and read to the end. A good example of this is the writing style of Frederick Forsyth. I remember one of his books starts with something like, "The man with half an hour to live was laughing." How could you not want to carry on reading with an intro like that ?

 

[Tomonthetrain]

I would have thought it's definitely worth it.

Out of interest, have you written the whole of that story yet ? I only ask because I find the easiest way to do it is to write the end first, in rough, so you know what you're writing the story towards.

You can often tell when you're reading a story where the author hadn't decided the outcome before they started writing, because of the round the houses, vague way those stories seem to meander towards the end.

The only comment I can make is a general one, and it's a personal preference. If the first page of a story interests me, I'm more likely to be hooked and read to the end. A good example of this is the writing style of Frederick Forsyth. I remember one of his books starts with something like, "The man with half an hour to live was laughing." How could you not want to carry on reading with an intro like that ?

Hi.

Yes I've done a rough outline of the end of it to help me. In fact I've done 2 similar endings both which results in a similar middle part of it.

I've taken your comments on board too.

 

[Heinz57]

Off to a good start there. Potential for a cracking story line, it makes me keen to hear what happends next.

My suggestion would be to spell the numbers, such as 'four' instead of 4. It looks and reads a lot better

 

[Tomonthetrain]

After a brief break to do other stuff, I am happy to say the book is nearly finished. Just a few bits to finalize then I'll be posting the cover art.

 

[LE Greys]

I would have thought it's definitely worth it.

Out of interest, have you written the whole of that story yet ? I only ask because I find the easiest way to do it is to write the end first, in rough, so you know what you're writing the story towards.

You can often tell when you're reading a story where the author hadn't decided the outcome before they started writing, because of the round the houses, vague way those stories seem to meander towards the end.

The only comment I can make is a general one, and it's a personal preference. If the first page of a story interests me, I'm more likely to be hooked and read to the end. A good example of this is the writing style of Frederick Forsyth. I remember one of his books starts with something like, "The man with half an hour to live was laughing." How could you not want to carry on reading with an intro like that ?

The opposite strategy (one I've used sometimes) is to write the last chapter first and work up to it. That's a favourite with detective story writers, because it makes it easier to lead up to the big reveallation at the end. The trouble is, that generally turns the first few chapters into a bit of a mess, setting the scene. One way around that is to write them, then compress them down to a single chapter.

 

[Tomonthetrain]

Sneak preview of the front cover

 

[Tomonthetrain]

Its finished and its now available for sale at http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00BC4KU4E/

Note that at the moment it is Exclusive to Kindle, other devices will receive it soon and Will say on the twitter page @whitovianbook